Page 57 of Too Old for This
“You know where I just came from? Spokane. And I talked to a lot of people up there.”
“Norma—”
“You can call me Ms.Dixon.”
I grit my teeth. She has forgotten who is the elder at this table. “Ms.Dixon, I’m not sure what my past has to do with finding your daughter.”
“If your child was the one missing, would you say my past doesn’t matter?”
I try to imagine this scenario, if Archie disappeared and Norma was the last person he spoke to, but I’m not sure it’s helpful. My reaction would be very different than hers is right now.
“Why did you lie to the police?” she asks.
“Pardon?”
“You told the police that Plum had a bruise on her temple. Right here.” Norma shoves aside her hair and jabs a finger at her temple. “You said it was purple and blue, like she’d had it for a couple of days.”
I stare at her, waiting for more. She delivers.
“But what you don’t know is that Plum and I are very close, and she tells me everything. We FaceTime, too. She never mentioned anything to me about getting injured or hit.” Norma smacks her hand on the table. “And Ineversaw a bruise on her.”
Plum and I are very close.
We FaceTime, too.
Norma is really trying to make up for all those lost years. I admire that. I really do. And I would applaud her efforts if they weren’t making my life difficult.
“And then you blamed Cole,” Norma continues, “for this supposed bruise on her head and the burn—the burn!—on her arm. You made it sound like he was abusing Plum and she must’ve run away from him.”
Her eyes look even smaller than they did outside. She has thin lips and porcelain skin; it’s smooth and flawless except for the fuzz. I start counting in my head, making myself wait to see if she has anything else to say. When I reach five, she picks up her cup to take a sip of tea.
“Ms.Dixon, I never said anything about a bruise.”
Her head rears back. For a second, I think that tea is going to spew out of her mouth. “Yes, you did. You told—”
“No. I never saw a bruise on Plum or…what was it? A burn? No. I never saw anything like that, and I certainly never told the police she had marks on her.”
“You must have. Why else would the police tell me—”
“They’re lying.” I pause, letting that sink in. “In my experience, the police lie about a lot of things. They asked me about Plum, and I told them she came to my house to talk about her show. The police didn’t record the interview, and I never signed an official statement. If you ask them for proof that I mentioned a bruise or a burn or any other kind of mark, they won’t have it. They can’t prove it, because it did not happen.”
She shakes her head like she’s trying to clear it. “But why would theywantto blame Cole?”
“Look at how convenient the story is for them. If a young womandisappears, they have to investigate. But a woman fleeing from her abusive boyfriend? The police don’t have to look for her. Without any evidence a crime was committed”—I clap my hands together like I’m dusting them off—“this case is no longer their problem.”
Norma slumps in her chair and bursts into tears.
CHAPTER 32
I pat Norma on the hand, waiting for the crying to stop. I know how hard it can be to accept that most people lie. And thereasonsthey lie make it worse.
Back when I was living in Spokane, a girl in Archie’s kindergarten class went missing. Her cherubic little face was plastered all over the newspaper, on flyers, on local TV. Everybody was interviewed—her family, neighbors, teachers, classmates. The police spoke to anyone who had been in contact with that girl.
The first lie came from the girl’s older brother. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on his sister. The internet didn’t exist yet, but video games did. While playing, he lost track of the time and of his sister. For seven days, he lied about when and where he’d last seen her, because he was afraid of getting in trouble.
He wasn’t the only one who lied. A police officer found two cigarette butts outside the girl’s home, in the backyard. Important evidence, they said, because no one in the home smoked. But another cop did, and he had smoked outside that house. He didn’t come forward for a long time, because he didn’t want to get fired.
Another child lied about loaning a toy to the girl, something that had become an important part of the search. And a neighbor told police she was at work all day and hadn’t seenanything. Except she had called in sick but never told her husband, because she’d wanted some time to herself.
